A Perfect Plan
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: Ruby has a plan to either give Henry some happiness or at least make the Queen lose face before him. Featuring a very special, and furry, guest star!


Ruby felt the familiar glow of the wolf that constantly lived within her lighting her eyes as she opened Regina's gate. Part of her didn't want to be here, treading these familiar steps to her greatest enemy's abode, but another part, the part to which she rarely surrendered any time, let alone control, grinned with anticipation. This was the perfect plan. There was no way that the Evil Queen could back out of this one or cause harm without revealing her true wickedness to Henry.

The bundle Ruby held gently in her gloved hands moved, and she looked down at it. It was impossible to keep warmth from seeping into her smile as a pair of beautiful, baby blue eyes steadfastly returned her gaze. For a moment, however, Ruby hesitated. Although she was able to hold him easily in her two hands, or even one hand if it had come to that, his importance was very heavy. She had not had such an important task bestowed upon her since coming to Storybrooke.

He smiled at her trustingly despite the predator in her eyes. The wolf shifted back into submission as the kitten began to purr. Ruby stroked his jet black fur and began to reconsider her plan. She was about to turn away when a young and curious voice stopped the Werewolf in her tracks. "Whatcha got there?"

Ruby turned back toward the evil Queen's mansion and saw as innocent a face as the one looking up to her from her hands. "A kitten," she spoke the obvious.

"I can see that," Henry said, smiling and stepping closer, "but why'd you bring him here?"

"Tonight . . . " Ruby's eyes again shifted nervously, this time to the bright, blue sky.

"Tonight's a full moon," Henry finished for her.

Ruby was both surprised that Emma's son was so smart and sensitive and relieved that he knew enough of her to know the implications of the coming moon without having to be told. She nodded. "Yeah, and I need somebody to protect this little guy. I found him outside the diner two weeks ago and have been taking care of him since, but I can't exactly do it tonight."

"You know," Henry remarked casually, "I bet you could control your wolf, if you really wanted to."

"I've tried that," she said, but before she could find an answer as to how to delicately tell the child that her wolf was far too capable of gaining control over her and doing truly horrible things, a cold voice pierced its way into their conversation.

"Things did not go so well for your friend when she tried it before. Did they, Ruby? You look like an intelligent wolf. I doubt you want anything living within a hundred miles of you tonight."

Regina placed her hands on Henry's shoulders and pulled him back against her. Her silent message would have been clear to Ruby even if not for the wolf who howled within her any time she drew as near as she was now to true evil: The boy was hers, and Regina would fight as viciously as the wolf within Ruby to keep him.

Ruby's smile faltered for only a moment as she stepped back. Then she raised her head, lifted her chin, and met Regina's fierce gaze eye to eye. "I thought Henry might have an idea of a child whom I could get to kittensit for me tonight," she spoke evenly.

"You should have asked Mary Margaret instead of coming here."

"Oh, come on, Mom!" Henry exclaimed. Regina's eyes widened, and she glowered down at him as he broke free from her grasp and ran to Ruby and the kitten. He petted the feline's dark, little head before his mother could stop him. "It'd just be for one night, wouldn't it?"

"Actually, for three."

"Why don't you get your grandmother to do it?" Regina questioned, ice in her dark brown eyes. "I'm sure the old woman must be capable of doing some task beside overcharging every one for the poison she serves."

"You're the one who dishes out poison," Ruby snarled, her eyes glowing once more.

Henry took the kitten out of her hands without either woman noticing. He held his warm, little body close to his chest and stroked his fur several more times. The kitten's deep, happy purr rumbled over Henry, filling him with the heat of the kind of joyous contentment that only cat lovers know.

"You would be wise to never forget that, Little Red Riding Hood." Regina stepped closer to Ruby; Ruby returned her glower and showed her teeth.

Both women looked up as a door slammed. "Henry?" Regina asked even as a slow smile spread over Ruby's lips.

"He took the kitten."

Regina's fingers curled until her fingernails pressed against the palms of her hands. Her fury burned in her eyes. "Then I suggest you go get that flea-bitten mongrel out of my home!"

"One," Ruby replied with a broad grin, "mongrels is a term usually used for dogs, not cats, and two, sure, I'll go get him and take him away with me. You're the one, however, who will get to explain to Henry why he can not enjoy his furry companionship for even three nights."

Regina's look tried, but failed, to pierce Ruby. "You did this on purpose!"

The younger woman almost laughed at the Queen. "I think the word most people use these days is Duh!"

Regina fumed. Ruby followed her into her home as she marched to find Henry. Music met their ears when she opened the door. They followed it to a grand, almost empty room. Ruby looked around them and felt a pang as she realized that this room, filled with musical instruments and an easel but no actual toys of any kind, was probably where Henry had spent a good deal of his childhood. The boy's bubbling laughter caused her to forget that concern, though, as she looked to the piano where he and the kitten were.

Regina's scowl lightened just a tad. "He certainly is a talented, little . . . _thing_, isn't he?" she commented, her tone still just as angry, as the kitten bounced up and down on the piano keys, playing a song as perfectly skilled as any true musician.

"He's a very talented _kitten_," Ruby corrected the Mayor and then slid pass her to go to Henry and their furry, little friend, "and sweet."

"Yeah," Henry agreed, laughing, "he is." Ruby had never seen the child's eyes shine as happily as they did now as the kitten bumped his head against his hand for more petting, all the while never missing a note of his song. "What's his name?" Henry asked, his eager eyes meeting Ruby's.

"Berloiz," she told him.

Henry's smiled filled his face, and in that moment, Ruby knew she could not have made him any happier if she had delivered Santa Claus and his entire sleigh of toys to the tyke. "I knew it!" he cried. "I knew it!" He grabbed the kitten gently up in both hands, jumped to his feet, and swung him around as he danced a circle.

Regina blinked in confusion. "He knew what?" she demanded icily.

"Berloiz is from The Aristocats," Ruby whispered to her out of the side of her mouth. "Look it up. It would do you both good to watch a movie together."

Regina crinkled her nose as though the mere thought of a film disgusted her, but then she vanquished the look as her son came to a stop before her. "Can we keep him, Mom?" he asked pleadingly. "It's not like it'll be forever. Just three nights! Pleeeeeease, can we?"

She opened her mouth to deny him but then shut it as she remembered him yelling at her that she never let him have or do anything that was any real fun. She looked to Ruby, saw the wolf in the girl's eyes, and understood well the plight into which she had placed her. She smiled.

Good would not triumph in this battle of wits. She would win, but she would appear to be good while doing so. Besides, it would make her son happy and perhaps even keep him at home a little more often. "Ruby and I will discuss the fees, but yes, you may keep him for her for the next three nights - "

"And days," Ruby interjected. She shrugged at Regina's scowl, which, of course, she was careful not to let Henry see. "I don't want to disrupt him every day."

"Very well. The next three days and nights, but he is to be kept indoors at all times." Regina's smile was truthful. This would, she thought, keep Henry inside, as well, and away from his accursed birth mother.

"Thanks, Mom!" Henry cried, throwing his arms around her waist, hugging her tightly, and almost squishing Berloiz between them. Regina placed her arms around her son and smiled triumphantly at Ruby, who just shrugged in response. Henry and Berloiz were both going to be happy with the arrangement, and although she had not made the Queen lose face before her son this time, she was still perfectly content with the affects of her plan.

"Mew!" Berloiz cried as he begun to feel crushed between Regina and Henry.

Henry was quick to apologize. "Sorry!" He left his mother and Ruby and dashed away, carrying Berloiz, to get him a saucer of milk. Regina could hear her son prattling about how they would find Berloiz's family. She appeared as calm and smooth as an unrippled lake until her son promised the kitten that they would reunite Berloiz with his mother just as he had found his own mother. Only then did she twinge.

Ruby almost felt sorry for the Queen when she saw her emotional pain flash over her pretty face, but that emotion came to a screeching halt when Regina told her, "Three hundred dollars."

"WHAT?!" Ruby screeched.

"You owe us three hundred dollars," she repeated, "one hundred for each day, unless, of course, you want to be the one to tell Henry he can not keep Turloise or whatever his name is."

"It's Berloiz," Ruby snapped, "and no, I'm not going to be the one who breaks his heart. You will be."

A dark storm of foreboding instantly filled Regina's face. The facade of the smooth lady was completely gone. "Get out," she demanded. "Bring the money to my office - "

"No. It's going to Henry."

"Fine, but never try this again, Little Red Riding Hood, or I will hang your pelt over my desk."

Ruby almost slapped her. She almost did, but just as her hand raised, out of the corner of her wild eyes, she saw Henry and Berloiz reentering the room. She lowered her hand, but her growl held as clear a message as the one Regina had just given her. Of all the humans her wolf might one day eat if it were ever unleashed, the only one she would love to devour was standing before her. "Fine," she hissed, "but this isn't over."

Thunder rumbled in the distance as Ruby stomped out of the mansion, leaving Regina standing alone. The Queen looked back to where her son and the kitten were again playing the piano. _No,_ she thought to herself. It wasn't over, and it never would be until she had Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and all their little friends dead under her feet and her son was entirely, and only, hers for the rest of his life. She laughed, cold, hard, and cruel, as lightning struck the clock tower.

Berloiz didn't miss a beat of his music, but his eyes did turn toward the evil Queen as she chuckled. That woman was not his new friend's mother. He was as certain of that as he was that he missed his own mother, his siblings, and Thomas O'Malley. Henry was going to help him reunite with his family; he, in turn, would help the child get with his own mother.

Henry's hand reassuringly ran over the kitten's black back. Both youngsters were immensely relieved when the Queen left the room. "It's okay," Henry told Berloiz, who mewed as if to agree with the boy's statement, and then they went back to their play and building their new friendship.

The End


End file.
